Surface grinding apparatus normally includes a cylindrical grinding wheel mounted on a horizontal rotatable spindle disposed above a reciprocating or rotating table or chuck. The part to be ground, such as a gear or the like, is mounted on the table or chuck. Surface grinding frequently requires that the face of the grinding wheel be of a specific non-planar shape so as to permit contour grinding of the workpiece. In the case of an involute gear, i.e. a gear having involutely shaped teeth, the face of the grinding wheel must possess a pair of involute surfaces which are the mirror image of each other for grinding opposed surfaces of the teeth.
Devices for producing involute displacement of a dressing tool are known in the art as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 2,274,959 issued to Headbloom. This prior art device is intended to be mounted on the same table upon which the part be ground is secured. The Headbloom device possess a number of shortcomings, however. For example, it is not possible to alter either the elevation or lateral position of the dressing tool relative to the base upon which it is mounted, consequently, set up and indexing of the device relative to the grinding wheel is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible in some applications without the use of special adaption fixtures.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a wheel dresser which is mounted in a position which remains in a constant, fixed relationship to the grinding wheel.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a dresser as described above which may be employed with a variety of grinding machines without the need for special fixturing or the like, and is capable of dressing, involute, tangent and radius contours.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a dresser of the type described above which may be set up and indexed rapidly and with a high degree of precision and repeatability.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be made clear or will become apparent during the course of the following description of the invention.